Great Ride Forward - Yunnan and SE Asia

[GRF_Hans]

Ride Update – Vang Vieng to Pakxe...and the jungle!

Before I begin this ride update, I would like to remind everybody that when riding in ovens (a.k.a. one-piece riding suits which you are afraid to open the leg vents on since the one and only time you did you crashed and got road rash on your knee which then got infected and was swollen for a week and a half) through 40 degree weather, it is always important to keep yourself hydrated.



This message was brought to you by Sponsor (a Thai electrolyte drink of which we drink at least 3 a day) and eggs (of which we average about 4 per person per day).

Now on to the fun stuff.

Departing from Vang Vieng after a few quiet and relaxing days found us having two of our longest rides almost back to back. Deviating from Route 13, we skirted around the capital city of Vientiane to make it to the Kong Lor caves, about 450km away. And this time we did it right. We woke up at 7am and were out of there by 9am. We stopped once every hour and a half, making good time. We ran into TWO other groups of BMW-mounted adventure riders! We should have arrived before sunset at around 6pm. It just felt right.



Gotta get your stretch on.

Things just never work out though, huh. The last turn we had to make down Route 8 to get to the caves was marked as 30km on the map. It wasn't. More like 60. The town was named Ban Khoun Kham in Lonely Planet. It wasn't. It was called Nahin. The guest-house recommended in the book was “just on the west-side of town!” It wasn't. It was 40km down the ever-darkening road and with no signs. What a nightmare. We ended up riding into the steepest mountain roads so far of the trip, and came away at over 510km on the day.

So at 9pm, we stumbled past the nearby hydroelectric dam's workers' barracks and into a quaint little guest-house. Too bad it turned out to also have an hourly room rate that we weren't aware of until the walls started shaking at midnight. Pete, always the one for a quick one-liner, still cheerfully said, “At least I couldn't hear you snoring, breh!”

Unfazed by the previous night, we woke up the next day to ride the 90km round-trip to explore the Kong Lor caves.



For those of you planning on making it to Laos, this excursion is a must. Over the course of several thousand years, the Hinboun River has tunneled its way underneath a mountain, connecting two villages on either side via the 7.5km waterway. Supplies are still ferried back and forth between the two villages every day from the Ban Nahin side...



...through the enormous 70 meter high and twice as wide caverns, past the stalactites and stalagmites (they ran a generator so we could see, otherwise all you have is your and the boat man's head lamps to see)...




...and out the other side about 35 minutes later.



It was a great day with a lot of smiles and amazement. On the way back to the guest-house, we came across a giant, wandering herd of 30-40 water buffalo that just needed to cross the road right in front of us.



And the next stop was for the children getting off school; some crammed onto school-buses made from welding a cart onto a large power tiller, the older ones weaving around on their hand-me-down scooters, and the younger ones riding their bicycles.



We met an ex-Buddhist monk named Ae near our hostel and chatted about all things Lao until the wee hours of the morning. The next day would be a long one as well, as we were hoping to get all the way to Pakxe in Champasak, another 450km or so south. It turned out to be an extremely uneventful ride, with no problems, no delays, no nothing. We arrived at around 6pm and repacked all our belongings in anticipation of spending 3 days in the surrounding jungle swinging from trees, ziplining over 120 meter waterfalls...



...and playing some impromptu rock-bocce atop those waterfalls.



The Treetop Experience was a great time; we made some new friends and got some amazing video. I have never ziplined before, and on the second day we were already hootin' and hollerin' across a 420 meter wide valley. After the 3-day session, it was good to get back to warm food and cold beer, though, and we are extremely excited about the next stop: Thailand!

More coming soon! Please click forward to www.greatrideforward.com to read the blog entires, view pics, and hopefully soon watch some video. The up-to-date route can be seen on Google Maps here.